Former Allstar retains title
Congratulations to Bidwell’s Brodie Pennie who was named to the First Team, A.U.S. All-Star team recognizing his great cross-country season as a rookie for the University of New Brunswick Reds team. The Atlantic University Sport (A.U.S.) cross-country championships were held in St. Johns’, Newfoundland last week.
The UNB Reds were dominant in the team standings with a 1st, 3rd, 4th and Brodie placing sixth overall! Having attended Assiginack Public School in his elementary days, Brodie was known as an A.P.S. Allstar. With his efforts and awards this season, an Allstar he remains!
Panther Points!
The U-13 and U-15 Manitoulin Panthers headed north this past weekend to compete in the South Porcupine Ice Breaker Tournament. The U-13 team, having many new faces this season, took this weekend as a great opportunity to get to know each other. They are clicking as a team and pulled off a big 7-3 win on Saturday against the SRF Rockies. This is sure to be a great season of development for these eager players. The U-15 Panther team dominated their round robin games and headed into Sunday undefeated, with 27 goals for and only 8 against! The team knew the hard work wasn’t over but made time for some hotel trick-or-treating fun on Saturday night.
The Panthers came to play on Sunday morning, pulling off an 8-0 win in the semi finals. The championship game was their toughest battle of the weekend, but they never stopped hustling and it paid off. A 3-1 victory over the East Nipissing Vipers secured a championship banner to bring home to our home arena in Little Current.
The U-18 Lady Panthers are also returning home after a successful first weekend away in Kapuskasing. They battled hard during their first “Super-Weekend” of the year, coming home with a win, tie, and two losses under their belt. They played the Kapuskasing Jaguars, Thunder Bay Fury, North Bay Jr. Lakers and Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds.
The team saw great development throughout the weekend and are coming home eager to improve. In between games the girls took to team bonding activities and had lots of laughs. The Lady Panthers will suit up and head north again this coming weekend to compete in Timmins. Good luck to all.
OHL’s Eshkawkogan
plays at ‘Home’!
Kohyn Eshkawkogan anticipated that this past week’s northern, road-trip would feel more like home games. In an interview on his Ottawa 67’s news feed he intimated how much he was looking forward to be playing in front of many friends, fans and family at the games on Thursday in North Bay, over to the Sault on Friday and especially Sunday’s tilt against the Wolves in Sudbury. Kohyn has played games in all three of these OHL rinks numerous times, but Sudbury has been his rink for home and away games since he was a Manitoulin Panther!
Kohyn was totally involved in each game including a power-play assist in a close, 3-2 loss to the Battalion. A duplicate score against the Greyhounds, with the 67’s down by two goals tie it up only to have the Sault score to stay ahead. In Sudbury, there was a noticeably larger Manitoulin contingent to witness Sunday’s strong 6-3, taming of the Wolves. Kohyn didn’t find his name on the ‘Goals’’ side of the scoresheet but his feisty play, did allow him a couple of trips to the penalty box.
Sunday’s game marked the last time the 15-year-old will get to play this close to home for the rest of the regular season. It appears that he is comfortable wherever he plays however and is currently topping the OHL’s Rookie defenders scoring lead with six points in 12 games. This week, Kohyn will be heading to Sarnia for the World Under-17 Challenge where he will suit up for Canada’s Team Red. Best of luck Kohyn, we are pulling for you!
Manitoulin Pickleball
hosts competition!
The local Pickleball team kept their game-play sharp over the weekend as they held an informal, tournament-play this weekend. They invited 22 players from the North Shore, Blind River, Elliot Lake, Espanola and Manitoulin Island and they converged on Little Current for some competitive pickleball play at the NEMI Recreational Center this past Saturday. A good time ensued!
